Underride safety protection
Subtitle: benefit-cost assessment of rear-impact guards for the North Dakota farm truck fleet
By: Kimberly Vachal, Esther Tumuhairwe, and Mark Berwick.
Contributors: Tumuhairwe, Esther.; Berwick, Mark D.; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.
Series: UGPTI department publication -- no. 196; UGPTI publication -- no. 196.
Publisher: Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, North Dakota State University
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Fargo, N.D.]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 18
Subjects: North Dakota. -- Legislative Assembly. -- House of Representatives.; Crash injuries -- Prevention -- Economic aspects -- North Dakota.; Rear-end collisions -- Economic aspects -- North Dakota.; Rear-end collisions -- North Dakota -- Statistics.; Farm trucks -- Safety appliances -- Economic aspects -- North Dakota.; Transportation -- Safety measures -- Economic aspects -- North Dakota.
Description: The North Dakota legislature recently passed a law to exempt the state's agricultural truck fleet from a requirement for rear-guard equipment as federally mandated large trucks. This analysis presents the public safety benefit-cost assessment of the device in terms of crash injury severity associated with agricultural truck rear-end crashes. It is based on North Dakota truck crash data and other research conducted on this type of crash where the passenger vehicle collides with the rear of the truck. The injury avoidance benefits and commercial vehicle safety grant benefits are estimated to be $11.4 to $20.2 million over the seven-year depreciable truck life. These public safety benefits are substantially higher than the estimated lifetime cost for the rear-guard equipment and maintenance of $8.1 million. In addition to the substantial public safety benefit, noncompliance with the federal mandate may be result in the loss of certain transportation infrastructure funds.
Notes: "October 2007."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-18).

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